Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO – Get Free Report) and Optimum Communications (NYSE:OPTU – Get Free Report) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.
Profitability
This table compares Criteo and Optimum Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Criteo | 5.60% | 14.33% | 8.05% |
| Optimum Communications | -58.15% | N/A | -0.70% |
Volatility & Risk
Criteo has a beta of 0.29, indicating that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Optimum Communications has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Criteo and Optimum Communications”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Criteo | $1.94 billion | 0.37 | $144.60 million | $1.97 | 7.55 |
| Optimum Communications | $8.59 billion | 0.02 | -$1.87 billion | ($10.39) | -0.06 |
Criteo has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Optimum Communications. Optimum Communications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Criteo, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
94.3% of Criteo shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of Optimum Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Criteo shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.4% of Optimum Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Criteo and Optimum Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Criteo | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 2.33 |
| Optimum Communications | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.56 |
Criteo presently has a consensus target price of $22.65, suggesting a potential upside of 52.22%. Optimum Communications has a consensus target price of $0.92, suggesting a potential upside of 39.29%. Given Criteo’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Criteo is more favorable than Optimum Communications.
Summary
Criteo beats Optimum Communications on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Criteo
Criteo S.A., a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. It also offers Criteo AI Engine solutions, including lookalike finder, recommendation, and predictive bidding algorithms; recommendation algorithms, dynamic creative optimization+, sponsored product placement algorithms, and other product placement algorithms. The company's technology comprises data synchronization, storage, and analysis of distributed computing infrastructure in various geographies, as well as fast data collection and retrieval using multi-layered caching infrastructure; and experimentation platform, an offline/online testing platform to enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of prediction models. In addition, it provides Criteo Marketing Solutions that allow commerce companies to address various marketing goals by engaging their consumers with personalized ads across the web, mobile, and offline store environments; and Criteo Retail Media solutions, which allows retailers to generate advertising revenues from consumer brands, and/or to drive sales for themselves, by monetizing their data and audiences through personalized ads, either on their own digital property or on the open Internet. Further, the company offers real-time advertising technology and trading infrastructure, delivering advanced media buying, selling, and packaging capabilities for media owners, agencies, performance advertisers, and third-party AdTech platforms. It serves companies in digital retail, travel, and classifieds sectors. Criteo S.A. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Paris, France.
About Optimum Communications
Altice USA, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband communications and video services in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It offers broadband, video, telephony, and mobile services to approximately five million residential and business customers. The company’s video services include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks; over the top services; video-on-demand, high-definition channels, digital video recorder, and pay-per-view services; and platforms for video programming through mobile applications. It also provides voice over Internet protocol telephone services; and mobile services, such as data, talk, and text. In addition, the company offers Ethernet, data transport, IP-based virtual private networks, Internet access, and telephony services; hosted telephony services, managed Wi-Fi, managed desktop and server backup, and collaboration services comprising audio and web conferencing; fiber-to-the-tower services to wireless carriers; data services consisting of wide area networking and dedicated data access, as well as wireless mesh networks; and enterprise class telephone services that include traditional multi-line phone service. Further, it provides business e-mail, hosted private branch exchange, web space storage, and network security monitoring; and international calling and toll free numbers. Additionally, the company offers audience-based and IP-authenticated cross-screen advertising solutions; and television and digital advertising services, as well as operates news channels under the News 12 Networks, Cheddar, and i24NEWS names. It also provides broadband communications and video services under the Optimum and Suddenlink brands. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Long Island City, New York. Altice USA, Inc. is a subsidiary of Next Alt. S.a.r.l.
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